In sanitary washing apparatuses that wash the private parts of the human bodies, washing water is sprayed from nozzles projecting to positions of washing from the positions where nozzle devices are accommodated to do washing.
In such nozzle devices, front ends of nozzles approach the private parts of the human bodies at the time of washing operations so that the washing water is sprayed. In this case, dirt may, in some cases, adhere to the nozzles in the case of washing. Therefore, various types of functions for cleaning the nozzles have been proposed.
Examples of the functions of cleaning the nozzles include cleaning a nozzle cleaning nozzle (see JP-A-11-193567, for example). In this case, dirt that has adhered to a nozzle itself can be cleaned by causing washing water to flow through the nozzle before or after a washing operation of the private parts of the human body. Consequently, a user can wash his or her private parts using washing water sprayed from the clean nozzle.
However, the dirt that has adhered to a step, a groove, a clearance, and so forth on a surface of the nozzle is not easily cleaned.
When the whole nozzle is covered with a cover in order to eliminate the step, the groove, the clearance, and so forth on the surface of the nozzle, the nozzle is made large in size. In order to make a sanitary washing apparatus compact, it is desired that the nozzle device is miniaturized.
As another example of the functions of cleaning the nozzles, a sanitary washing apparatus in which a cleaning chamber is provided at a front end of a nozzle to spray washing water has been proposed (see JP-A-2003-13481).
In the sanitary washing apparatus having the cleaning chamber, the washing water sprayed into the cleaning chamber is rebounded on an inner wall of the cleaning chamber, thereby washing the front end of the nozzle. In this case, the washing water is only sprayed to the front end of the nozzle, so that only local washing is done.
On the other hand, in sanitary washing apparatuses that wash the private parts of the human bodies, various functions have been devised in order to realize washing conforming to the tastes of users. For example, the function of adjusting the spray form of washing water sprayed from a nozzle is provided in order to realize washing conforming to the taste of a user (see JP-A-2001-90155, for example).
According to the foregoing document, a user adjusts the spray form of the washing water sprayed from the nozzle in conformity with his or her taste.
A nozzle device disclosed in the foregoing document has a swirling application chamber communicating with a water discharge hole, an eccentric pipe, and an axis-directed pipe. The eccentric pipe eccentrically communicates with the swirling application chamber, to cause washing water to flow into the swirling application chamber. In this case, the washing water that has flown into the swirling application chamber is sprayed as spiral flow from the water discharge hole. Further, the axis-directed pipe communicates with the swirling application chamber with its axis directed thereto, to cause the washing water to flow into the swirling application chamber. In this case, the washing water that has flown into the swirling application chamber is sprayed from the water discharge hole without application of a swirling force.
It is possible to vary the degree of the swirling force and perform wide-narrow setting of a washing range by adjusting the ratio of the flow rate of the washing water supplied to the eccentric pipe and the flow rate of the washing water supplied to the axis-directed pipe.
In the above-mentioned conventional nozzle device, however, the washing water sprayed from the water discharge hole encounters high flow resistance in the swirling application chamber from the axis-directed pipe through the swirling application chamber, thereby causing a pressure loss. Therefore, the velocity of flow of the washing water sprayed from the water discharge hole is reduced. In the above-mentioned sanitary washing apparatus, the density at the center of the washing water sprayed in a spiral shape (a cone shape) from the nozzle is lower than that in the vicinity of the outer periphery thereof. Therefore, parts of the private parts of the human body may not be sufficiently washed.
Users generally desire a strong washing feeling due to linear flow and a soft washing feeling due to widened spiral flow. Therefore, sanitary washing apparatuses capable of efficiently spraying linear flow having a high velocity of flow as well as capable of washing the private parts of the human bodies throughout have been desired. In order to realize compactness of the sanitary washing apparatuses, miniaturization of the nozzle devices has been desired.